Virginia has record gun-sale background checks

The day after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school, Virginia State Police saw their highest-ever number of gun-purchase background checks.

A Virginia gun-rights advocate says that should be no surprise, given comments from national lawmakers about increasing gun restrictions in the wake of the shootings.

According to state police records, the agency processed 4,166 background checks to purchase guns on Saturday-the highest volume of transactions in one day since the program began in 1989.

It was a 42 percent increase over the number of checks on the same Saturday (Dec. 17) in 2011.

On Friday, the day of the Connecticut shootings, the state police processed 2,770 background check transactions, a 26 percent increase over the same Friday in 2011. Background checks on Sunday were 43 percent higher than the same Sunday a year ago.

Virginia law requires anyone buying a gun from a licensed firearms dealer to undergo a criminal background check through the state police.

State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller noted that the number of background checks isn't the same thing as the number of guns purchased — the state police don't track gun purchases as systematically as they do background checks.

Background checks reflect the number of gun customers, not how many guns each individual might buy.

Nor do the background check totals include gun purchases through private sales, as those aren't required to go through the background check.

Geller said the state police don't ask gun purchasers anything about why they're buying a gun, so there's no way to know for sure if the record-setting number of background checks is related to the Connecticut shootings and the gun-control debate it has sparked in Congress and at the state level.

But Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, said the weekend's rise in background checks is absolutely related to the Connecticut shootings and the subsequent talk about increased gun restrictions.

"You ain't seen nothing yet," Van Cleave said Tuesday.

He said when gun owners hear that a type of weapon or magazine might be restricted, they tend to buy more of it, stocking up in advance of a potential ban. It's the exact opposite, he said, of the effect gun-control advocates hope to have.

He expects to see high numbers of gun sales continue, saying that when the president and congressional leaders talk about gun control, it sends a message to gun owners.

"The gun manufacturers are going to sell tons of these things," Van Cleave said.